SOKOTRA Capital led consortium acquires L’Aquaculture Tunisienne

Seafood industry news : A consortium led by Dubai-based private investment company SOKOTRA Capital has completed acquisition of L’Aquaculture Tunisienne (AT), an aquaculture company established in North Africa and the Mediterranean basin.

Founded by Si M’hamed Driss in 1988, AT is among the largest seabass and seabream hatcheries and nurseries in North Africa. The aquaculture company currently has annual production capacity of 20 million fingerlings and 1,500 tons of fish, primarily seabass and seabream.

AT has been catering to the local and export markets for seabass and seabream for more than 30 years and is known for supplying high quality fingerlings.

Karim Garnaoui – CEO of AT said: “Today, and backed by the new investors, AT has the capacity to become one of the leading Mediterranean basin aquaculture companies. The in-depth knowledge of the industry, supported by the strong financial and strategic capabilities of the new investors, can only propel AT to become one of the best companies in the sector.

“This transaction has been successfully completed thanks to the professionalism, support and commitment of the SOKOTRA Capital team who have demonstrated on numerous occasions their technical and operational expertise in restructuring the company.”

SOKOTRA Capital through the acquisition continues implementing its investment strategy focused on the highly promising agriculture and aquaculture segments by consolidating a portfolio of investments in the sectors, in Africa as well as South East Asia.

Albert Momdjian – Founder and CEO of SOKOTRA Capital, said: “AT has a highly skilled team with extensive experience. Tunisia remains, and despite the recent challenges, a very attractive and friendly destination for foreign direct investments. We sincerely hope that this will be the start of a significant expansion for us, and for other investment firms, in Tunisia.

“We have very ambitious plans for AT and we hope to better service the local market in terms of fingerlings, but also to better position AT as a highly reliable producer of quality fingerlings to the rest of North Africa as well as, in due course, to the Mediterranean basin.”

Albert Momdjian said further that the agriculture and aquaculture areas are of significant importance to SOKOTRA Capital. He added that with the protein race already started, the company is very well placed and as a team to benefit from it.